Easy Cashew Horchata

An easy recipe for Horchata using cashews in place of the typical almonds. So delicious you’ll question why you haven’t made it sooner.

I seriously never knew that I was a horchata fan. I used to live in San Francisco and frequent many a taqueria and always saw the horchata there, but could never bring myself to ask about it, or even better, order it. While searching for recipe ideas, I happened on horchata and I thought, now is the time Heather, to give this stuff a shot. It takes overnight to make it, so there’s no instant gratification in this sipper, but it was worth every second of waiting. Wow. I am now kicking myself for waiting so long to give it a shot. It’s one glass of deliciousness for certain.

Cashew Horchata | farmgirlgourmet.com

I love cashews. Whenever I’m at Trader Joes, I always, and I do mean always, pick up 2 pouches of raw cashews. I smoke them with spices, I oven roast them and sometimes pan saute them for a quick addition to salads. But as I mentioned above, they can also be used to make luscious, delicious, milky horchata. You can seriously go crazy with the spice combos on this recipe. Imagine making a chai spiced horchata with cardamom and cinnamon sticks or authentic Mexican Horchata. However you decide to do it, my only suggestion is….don’t wait eons. It’s easy, it’s delicious and you should really just go for it.

Cashew Horchata

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 12 hours

Total Time: 12 hours, 20 minutes

Yield: 4 Servings

An easy recipe for cashew horchata. You'll question why you haven't made it sooner.

Add the rice to a blender, cover and blend until it starts to become powdery. Add rice to a medium bowl with the 1 1/4 cup warm water, cashews, star anise, cinnamon stick and orange zest. Cover and let stand at room temperature overnight.

Yum! Crazy enough, I just tried horchata for the first time the other day at the Farmer’s Market. Now I’m dying to make it. What a great idea to make it with cashews! By the way, I don’t know if you ever get to Winco Foods, but they have the best prices on raw cashew pieces that I’ve ever found. They average around $3/pound in the bulk section. That info is too good not to share. 🙂